1/2 Marathon

You can find Mary's results at Silicon Valley Marthon relay and searching for the "Chick Campers" team. She turned in a personal best time of 1:10:42 for her 7 mile leg. You go, girl!

Mine are available at Silicon Valley Marathon and entering 5061 for my bib number. See below for my excuses...
 
 

They say that you should keep your normal training routine on race day. Eat the same things, keep the same schedule. So, Mary and I got up in time to pre-heat the oven for croissants and pull a couple of espressos. Mary dropped me off at the Light Rail station and I took the trolley up to the 1/2 marathon start line. I ran the first 3 miles at 9 minute pace - too fast for me: average HR around 168... My left knee started to hurt. As I got to mile 5, my knee made me walk one minute out of every mile. By mile 10, I was walking one minute for every 2 minutes of running. By the finish (13.1 miles) I was walking 1/2 the time. However, I did finish. My time was 2:28:43 - another personal best! (I've never raced this distance before).  Even without the knee trouble, this was a poorly run race for me. I had a target pace (11 minute, to start) and a target HR (151bpm) and ignored both. Mary calls it "acute testosterone poisoning". It's possible, that if I had followed my plan, I would not have had the knee problems. I don't know about that. Mind you, I enjoyed the race immensely, despite the knee injury.

After hobbling past the finish line, I stuffed a few Una Mas wraps in my face (the HRM said I had burned 1850 kcal in that 2.5 hours), filled a bag with ice and proceeded to the 3rd relay transition to cheer Mary on the finish of her relay leg.

After helping Scott load the Mile-20 aid station (MITcrc sponsored) into his truck, Mary and I hitched a ride with him to our house.  I met Scott again at the Capital Club Athletics to follow his recovery method involving the sauna, steam room, whirlpool and cold bath (lots of cold bath). After 90 minutes of heat/cold treatment, I went home and vegged-out. We ordered take-out mexican before going to sleep at 8pm.

I iced my knee for the next 3 days. It's feeling much better now.